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  1. Originally posted by pleasegone:[..]
    By the time Joey Ramone was launched, the Hot 100 was a combination of airplay, and download sales, and possibly streaming. Unlike Europe, there were no longer singles of any physical format sold since at least 2007 or so. You could find the No Line CD singles available as imports for $13 or so. Joey Ramone got 0 airplay on the rock stations I listened to in Florida, Georgia, and several other states I travel to. In the Orlando area, and everywhere else, I did not hear it even once. For most older acts I would hear a new single for a week or two on and off and then never again. The local Orlando station played Boots at least 5 times in the first 2 weeks of release. Even Magnificent I heard a few times. Not trying to bash U2 in any way, shape, or form. They just were not getting airplay anymore. I did hear You're The Best Thing About Me on the piped in system at a McDonald's once, which was a shock.

    I did hear Discotheque on local radio a lot. It was Top 10 for a reason. It was the lead single, and the US had not yet taken the ugly turn on the album that forever caused U2 to disown it. And Staring At The Sun a good bit. No other Pop singles got airplay in Florida, or anywhere else I traveled. Sad. The album is so much better than most think. It's my third favorite U2 album behind Achtung and Joshua.
    I remember the media day in K Mart when they were getting a lot of cynical questions from reporters. POP was definitely misunderstood (surprising coming so soon after AB & Zooropa) but I think it holds up very well , certainly better than what has been served up over the last 15 years. And Popmart was a hell of a show and great fun.
  2. Originally posted by pleasegone:[..]
    By the time Joey Ramone was launched, the Hot 100 was a combination of airplay, and download sales, and possibly streaming. Unlike Europe, there were no longer singles of any physical format sold since at least 2007 or so. You could find the No Line CD singles available as imports for $13 or so. Joey Ramone got 0 airplay on the rock stations I listened to in Florida, Georgia, and several other states I travel to. In the Orlando area, and everywhere else, I did not hear it even once. For most older acts I would hear a new single for a week or two on and off and then never again. The local Orlando station played Boots at least 5 times in the first 2 weeks of release. Even Magnificent I heard a few times. Not trying to bash U2 in any way, shape, or form. They just were not getting airplay anymore. I did hear You're The Best Thing About Me on the piped in system at a McDonald's once, which was a shock.

    I did hear Discotheque on local radio a lot. It was Top 10 for a reason. It was the lead single, and the US had not yet taken the ugly turn on the album that forever caused U2 to disown it. And Staring At The Sun a good bit. No other Pop singles got airplay in Florida, or anywhere else I traveled. Sad. The album is so much better than most think. It's my third favorite U2 album behind Achtung and Joshua.


    Streaming wasn’t really the thing yet in 2014, it was mostly digital download, YouTube streams and radio. But with it being a song you couldn’t actually “purchase” that definitely ate into its chances. It would have very easily been a hot 100 single, idk if anything more than that but Ordinary Love cracked the hot 100 with no support so Joey should have easily done the same. They just didn’t do any tv in America when the album came out and then Bono go injured and that was it for its promotion cycle
  3. Originally posted by pleasegone:Was on a general music site, and somebody was scathing U2 for making Discotheque the first single...and here's how I responded, good points? Or my usual psycho-babble? :

    Discotheque was a fine single. It hit #10 in the states, and nothing on Pop would have been higher. It was their final top 10 hit in the USA. Pop is my 3rd favorite U2 album, but a singles album? It's not. Nothing else on Pop would have gone higher than 10, though in my heart, I hoped Staring At The Sun would do better...but it got to #26 for a reason. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me from the Batman Vs Rocky soundtrack is to me, a far better song, and it only got to #16. U2 just wasn't that young anymore, and were still getting on the charts, but were no longer getting people under 25 much anymore. Vertigo only got to #31, but it was #1 or Top 5 on all the geezer charts geared to those over 35, and it had the apple commercial tie in...but #31 is no great achievement. A great single for an aging band for sure. "Boots" was a terrible single choice but still got to #37 based on their name, and that only. Magnificent would have been a better choice for the fans, but likely would not have done much better. U2 was a legacy act by 2009 anyways. Boots remains their final top 40 hit in the USA. Joey Ramone did not even make the hot 100, and SOI is perhaps their weakest album. By the time SOE came out, they were no way going to hit the top 100 in a world dominated by Auto Tune, and charts where someone over 35 was not going to get airplay. And they were pushing 60...so single choices were inconsequential at that point.

    You could say the same about every other band or artist from their era the mega successful bands such as AC⚡️DC,Def leppard, Aerosmith, GnR, Depeche mode, Bon jovi, Radiohead The Cure even Paul McCartney nothing they've done post 00s gets airplay and you only ever hear their certified classics on the designated Rock station ,U2 had a longer run at getting mainstream airplay than most of their contemporaries certainly in Europe that was the case right up to Atomic Bomb however a lot of people listen to streaming sites now as opposed to Radio so getting airplay isn't as important as it used to be.
  4. Still love Pop, start to finish.

    The "it was never finished" is b.s. to me. So the songs changed live. Their songs always change live.

    Remember that freaking Numb got airplay as the first single just a few years earlier--Numb! They were at the height of their powers and relevancy so people (including radio station people) were willing to play their stuff.

    By '97, Radiohead had become the "it" band, even though I still argue that Pop is a better album than Ok Computer (Radiohead's next two albums are the real breakthrough's in my opinion).

    And, let's be honest, no songs off Pop (or Zooropa for that matter) are as good as any of the AB singles (or several other non-single tracks).

    U2 clawed their way back to radio play with the singles off ATYCLB and then Vertigo, but have dropped mediocre songs into the void of no one cares as singles since then.
  5. I like a lot of what you’re saying - heck, I’ve been saying what you stated about the ATYCLB/HTDAAB singles for ages now. They don’t resonate with me that much anymore but they certainly did at the time. Nothing has to that extent since.

    I’d also agree that most (all?) of AB beats the tunes Pop and Zooropa - aside from Stay, of course.

    As a Radiohead fan, however, I don’t think I can hold my tongue on this one…

    OKC > Pop
  6. Originally posted by justinpushplay:[..]


    Streaming wasn’t really the thing yet in 2014, it was mostly digital download, YouTube streams and radio. But with it being a song you couldn’t actually “purchase” that definitely ate into its chances. It would have very easily been a hot 100 single, idk if anything more than that but Ordinary Love cracked the hot 100 with no support so Joey should have easily done the same. They just didn’t do any tv in America when the album came out and then Bono go injured and that was it for its promotion cycle
    What I'm saying regardless of downloads, SOI got ZERO airplay. I did not hear one song on the radio anywhere. The Hot 100 at the time was a combination of download sales in airplay, and SOI did not get any airplay at all. Obviously, I did not listen to every single USA station, but at least 20 cities, and not one song ever.
  7. Originally posted by popmarter:[..]

    You could say the same about every other band or artist from their era the mega successful bands such as AC⚡️DC,Def leppard, Aerosmith, GnR, Depeche mode, Bon jovi, Radiohead The Cure even Paul McCartney nothing they've done post 00s gets airplay and you only ever hear their certified classics on the designated Rock station ,U2 had a longer run at getting mainstream airplay than most of their contemporaries certainly in Europe that was the case right up to Atomic Bomb however a lot of people listen to streaming sites now as opposed to Radio so getting airplay isn't as important as it used to be.
    From 2009 on, Bon Jovi got tons more airplay than U2 for new material...but mainly you are right. Older artists don't get airplay. U2 seemed to not understand that, searching for the elusive relevancy that wasn't coming. GNR didn't have any material to get airplay, but last year, when Hard Skool was released, I heard it on radio twice.
  8. Originally posted by pleasegone:[..]
    What I'm saying regardless of downloads, SOI got ZERO airplay. I did not hear one song on the radio anywhere. The Hot 100 at the time was a combination of download sales in airplay, and SOI did not get any airplay at all. Obviously, I did not listen to every single USA station, but at least 20 cities, and not one song ever.
    The acoustic version of every breaking wave got a lot of airplay here in Phoenix on the adult contemporary station
  9. As it should have. I consider SOI their worst album as released. The Teddy Bear Tedder Version sounds like the band pandering to young audiences. The acoustic version is one of the few times a U2 acoustic version outshines its album counterpart. The worst offender is Staring At The Sun, which of course, they could not figure out. It actually sounded great on the Popmart tour. I like the mistakes at Vegas, and the disjointed attempts to follow. Sad they gave up on it. It showed how human they were after the superhuman Zoo period.
  10. Originally posted by pleasegone:[..]
    As it should have. I consider SOI their worst album as released. The Teddy Bear Tedder Version sounds like the band pandering to young audiences. The acoustic version is one of the few times a U2 acoustic version outshines its album counterpart. The worst offender is Staring At The Sun, which of course, they could not figure out. It actually sounded great on the Popmart tour. I like the mistakes at Vegas, and the disjointed attempts to follow. Sad they gave up on it. It showed how human they were after the superhuman Zoo period.
    You forgot SOE which is far worse then SOI
  11. Woohoo, 26 years ago this beauty saw the light of day